ChatBuzz

A terminal-aesthetic TCP chatroom built in Python. Real-time messaging over raw sockets with a CustomTkinter GUI, SQLite message history and a full admin permission system. Started as a project for Computer Network course

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Screenshots

Login

Chat

DM

Kick

Group Chat

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Stack

• Python 3.13.5
• customtkinter (GUI)
• socket + threading (networking)
• sqlite3 (message history + ban list)

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Project Structure

ChatBuzz/
|-- client/
|   `-- client.py
|-- server/
|   |-- server.py
|   |-- handler.py
|   |-- state.py
|   `-- commands.py
|-- database/
|   `-- db.py
`-- config.py

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Setup

Install dependency:

pip install customtkinter

Windows (venv activation):

Open a terminal and wait 2-3 seconds for the auto-activation command to appear, then run it:

(Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned) ; (& c:\CodeStudyStuff\Python\Projects\ChatBuzz\.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1)

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Running

Start the server first:

python -m server.server

Then launch client(s) in separate terminals:

python -m client.client

Server runs on 127.0.0.1:55555 by default. Edit config.py to change host or port.

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Features

Regular users

• Real-time group chat
• Message history on join (pulled from SQLite)
• /dm <user> <message> for private messaging
• /group <user1> <user2> for temporary group sessions
• /help for available commands

Admin

• /kick <user> and /ban <user> with reason prompt
• /unban <user> to restore access
• /banlist to view all banned users
• Full access to DM and group commands
• Duplicate admin session blocked

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Limitations

• Local network only (127.0.0.1 hardcoded by default)
• Admin password is hardcoded (admin@123)
• No message encryption
• No persistent user accounts or authentication
• Single general channel only (groups are temporary and dissolve on last leave)
• No file or media sharing

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Future Scope

• LAN or internet deployment with configurable host
• NLP-based spam and toxicity detection on incoming messages
• Sentiment analysis on chat history using stored SQLite data
• Proper authentication system with hashed passwords
• Multiple persistent channels
• End-to-end encryption

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Notes

• The SQLite database is auto-created on first server start
• Banned users are blocked at connection before entering the chat
• Each client runs on its own thread server-side